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The Bad News Mayor

New York City's businessman-mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has made it a bragging point that he does not need political friends and does not care about scoring political points with the public. That's a good thing, since he'll have nothing but bad news this week when he announces plans to deal with the city's historic financial bind.

The rainy-day funds and one-shot revenue wonders, like the $3 billion surplus used to help balance last year's budget, are gone. Borrowing, done to excess in the past, is not a solution; the cost of servicing the current debt is already a millstone. There is no easy way to fix the immediate shortfall of $1 billion in the current budget and a projected $6 billion gap in the next, especially when forecasters see red for years ahead.

Solving the city's worst financial dilemma since the 1970's requires acknowledging that it is in part New York-made. While the Sept. 11 events exacerbated the problems, the city's precipitous fiscal slide predated the attacks. The election campaign season that ended this month made the situation worse, as politicians did everyone the disservice of refusing to acknowledge reality.

Mr. Bloomberg knows he must raise taxes and cut spending while trying not to heap too much of the burden on any one segment of the population. He should begin with those who are carrying less than their share now. There is no good reason, for instance, that the East River bridges should continue to be toll-free. The commuter tax, which was unconscionably repealed in 1999, should be revived. A surcharge on the personal income tax that is slanted to the wealthiest New Yorkers -- an idea floated by the City Council speaker, Gifford Miller, in the spring -- seems better than many of the other options for raising money. All these would require support from the State Legislature.

The city can do an Albany bypass with an across-the-board hike in the property tax, however, and City Hall has hinted it is looking at an increase of as much as 25 percent, which would produce about $2.5 billion in revenue. For single-family homeowners in the city, who pay one-third less than a similar homeowner on Long Island, that would amount to an average $475 a year. Meanwhile, absentee landlords currently taxed at the single-family rate should be reclassified as commercial property owners.

As onerous as these taxes sound, they would raise only about $3.7 billion. Layoffs and other spending cuts, including the city's education and social programs, are unavoidable. While the city work force is both underappreciated and hard-working, it enjoys some benefits that are out of line with those in the private sector. These include 35-hour workweeks and health benefits that pay 100 percent of the cost of basic medical coverage. Whatever Mayor Bloomberg does will draw charges of holiday-season heartlessness. But painful as it will be to address the problem, it would be worse to delay, and thus put the city's future in jeopardy.